Healthy Eating Habits Include Meal Plans

Healthy eating habits must include a weekly meal plan, at least until your develop routine habits. Weight loss clients who I coach are required to do a meal plan for the week so there’s a plan in place before the craziness of the workweek takes over.

Typically, the best time to do the plan is on the weekend. That way the food is in the house and the meals are prepped to the point where you can finish them off in a reasonable amount of time. For some it works better to do all the cooking and portioning on the weekend.

Healthy Eating Habits Take Time to Develop

To develop healthy eating habits will require some trial and error. Be realistic. Don’t be overly ambitious or you may fail and become discouraged.

Find a reasonable pattern that fits in your life. Also, be aware that not every week will be the same, so take this into consideration when you do your weekly meal planning. Healthy eating habits will take some practice before they are habitual enough to replace the “catch-as-catch can” default mode. Be patient with yourself and you will get there.

Loaded Veggie Avocado Quinoa Frittatas

Here’s a muffin cup egg recipe that you can make on the weekend for the entire week. I am a big promoter of muffin cup eggs as an easy, make-ahead, pre-portioned, grab-n-go breakfast.

These quinoa frittatas are baked in a muffin pan and loaded with veggies and creamy bites of avocado. This is a healthy and nutritious on the go breakfast.

INGREDIENTS (12 muffins)

1 cup uncooked Ancient Harvest Quinoa (or another brand)
3 large eggs
3 large egg whites
1 cup spinach, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1 small red bell pepper, diced
¼ cup diced red onion
1 ripe avocado, diced
¼ teaspoon salt
Freshly cracked black pepper
Optional: 1 jalapeño, seeded and diced
Optional: 1/2 cup shredded cheese of your choice

INSTRUCTIONS

Place quinoa and 2 cups of water in a small pot over high heat. Bring to boil, cover, reduce heat to low and cook quinoa for 15 minutes or until all the water is absorbed. Fluff with a fork and transfer to a separate bowl to cool for 5-10 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with muffin liners and generously spray the inside of each liner with nonstick cooking spray.
In a large bowl, beat together eggs and egg whites. Fold in veggies, onion, avocado, salt and pepper and jalapeño and/or cheese (if adding). Fold in cooled quinoa.
Divide evenly among prepared muffin pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until egg is set and edges are barely golden brown.
Cool in pan for 5-10 minutes then immediately transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Store in fridge tightly wrapped or in a container; these will keep for 5-7 days.

NOTES

It’s important to use muffin liners in this recipe when baking as when I didn’t my mini frittatas stuck to the pan. Be sure to spray the inside of the liners with nonstick cooking spray too!
Nutrition does not include shredded cheese, but if added, each frittata will be around 15 calories more.
You can play around with the veggies. Try adding mushrooms, zucchini, sweet potatoes or even black beans.
Organic eggs with omega-3s are best for optimal nutrition.

Nutrition (per muffin)